A.M. #79: Phoenix

After missing the past four games with a lower body injury, Blue Jackets right wing Nathan Horton is expected to play tonight in the home finale in Nationwide Arena against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Is Horton 100 percent healthy? Not even close. Most NHL players are pretty banged-up right now, but Horton has been hobbled for sometime now and it's unclear if the week-long break will have helped.

Asked if he knows he can play or if he thinks he can play, Horton smiled.

"I'm in, so I'm going to go with it," Horton said. "I've practiced a couple times -- one time by myself -- but you never really know until you get into a game. I guess we'll see."

Asked if he'd be playing tonight if this were November 8 instead of April 8, Horton smiled. (He always smiles.)

"I don't know. I'm not sure. It's not November, so I don't know."

Horton will go into the lineup in a familiar spot: on the right side of center Ryan Johansen, the opposite wing of rookie Boone Jenner.

With injuries to two veterans -- left wing Nick Foligno is out with a lower body injury and right wing R.J. Umberger is out with an upper body injury, both through the remainder of the regular season and perhaps beyond -- the Blue Jackets suddenly had a dearth of veteran players on the wing.

Enter Horton.

One can surmise the following scenario ...

Horton is going to give it a go because the Blue Jackets sorely need a veteran presense on the wing. If tonight's game tweaks the injury -- it sure seems like a groin, right? -- the Blue Jackets will need a body ready to play in Dallas vs. the Stars on Wednesday.

Enter Jack Skille, who was called up from AHL Springfield on Tuesday.

Skill may not play tonight. Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said the final lineup decision will be Jared Boll or Jack Skille on the fourth line with center Derek MacKenzie and left wing Corey Tropp.

So, the lines will look like this:

F1: Jenner - Johansen - Horton

F2: Calvert - Dubinsky - Atkinson

F3: Comeau - Anisimov - Letestu

F4: Tropp - MacKenzie - Boll/Skille

Matt Frattin, who has played the last two games on Johansen's wing, will be a healthy scratch.

The defense remains unchanged, so:

F1: Johnson - Prout

F2: Tyutin - Wisniewski

F3: Murray - Savard

The Blue Jackets' path to the playoff got considerably wider Monday night when the New Jersey Devils lost to Calgary 1-0. If the Blue Jackets gain four points in the final four games -- 2-2-0, 1-1-2, 0-0-4 -- they'll clinch a spot.

The Blue Jackets cannot clinch a spot in the playoffs tonight, but a win would make it a near certainty and it would greatly enchance their chances to catching Philadelphia for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers play in Florida tonight.

The Coyotes have dropped four straight (0-2-2) for only the third time this season, but remain only one point back of the Stars in the Western Conference playoff spot. They have not lost five straight all season.

"This is a desperate team that we're going to face tonight," Richards said, "a team that's battling a lot like we are for points."

Side dishes:

-- The Coyotes held an optional skate in Nationwide Arena. Goaltender Thomas Greiss will start again for injured Mike Smith. Columbus product D Connor Murphy will be a healthy scratch for the fifth straight game, missing a chance to play his first NHL game in his hometown.

-- Skille hasn't played for the Blue Jackets since New Year's Eve in Denver. It has been said by those atop the Blue Jackets' organization that Skille is every bit an NHL player, that he deserves to be in the NHL. But he had to bide his time in Springfield because of a roster logjam. In 22 games with the Falcons, Skille had 13 goals, 11 assists and a plus-3 rating, including a four-goal outing over the weekend.

-- Here's Skille on his four-goal game: "The first two went in early, both in the first period, and all I kept thinking was 'Well, that was quick. This is weird. The puck's just following me.' The first one was off a faceoff, far corner and it just exploded the water bottle. That was nice. That only happens like once every five years. In the second period, when the third one went in, again the puck just fell into my lap right in front of the net there. I was almost laughing a little bit. 'Why doesn't this happen to me every game?' It was a lot of fun. It was a back and forth game, turnovers all over the place on both ends of the ice. The fourth one was a rebound to my forehand. I shot it, it banked off the goalie and went in. That was with 15 seconds left."

-- Skille got a phone call from Springfield coach Brad Larsen late Tuesday after the Falcons had returned from a long road trip that ended in St. John's, Newfoundland. "It caught me off-guard," Skille said. "I fell into my bed and kind of fell asleep without realizing I'd fallen asleep. The phone was ringing. Once you see it's Larsen calling, you know you're being called up. It's a good call."

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